MS NOW and CNN barred from Xi Jinping White House arrival
by Virali: Xi Jinping
MS NOW and CNN were blocked from covering Xi Jinping's arrival back at the White House ahead of the state dinner Laura Barone Lopez says credentials went in on time last night, but at the North Portico greeting ceremony the Wrangler told her she couldn't be let in and pointed her to Stephen Chung, the White House communications director. She texted him asking why CNN's correspondent and producer were also barred from the greeting between President Trump, the First Lady and Xi Jinping and his First Lady. She did get credentialed for Xi at the National Archives tomorrow, which isn't on White House grounds The open question is whether the denials keep coming for the daily, typical events they're usually allowed into
Transcript (en)
The news is the news that we're talking about. The news is that we have been barred from covering another White House event just moments ago. Let's bring in MSNOW White House reporter Laura Barron Lopez. Laura, thank you for being with us. What has happened? So we were attempting to attend an event which was the greeting ceremony at the North Portico which is just behind me. standing still there, members of the military. And it was the greeting ceremony between President Trump, the First Lady, and the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his First Lady to the White House ahead of the state dinner. And so we had submitted our credentials for this event last night at the deadline that was issued by the White House to submit them, submitted them on time. And throughout the day after we had regained access to the White House, we were trying to figure out if we were going to be allowed to attend this event, to be admitted to it. Just a pretty typical event here at the White House that we would regularly cover and that we submitted our credentials like we always do for. And when I went up to the Wrangler, who is one of the press assistants who handles press and logistics like this after most of the press had gone through I said will I be admitted I with MSNOW and I submitted my credential I was told, I'm sorry, I can't let you in. I'm sorry, I can't. And I was told to reach out to Stephen Chung, the White House communications director, and to ask him about it. And I did. I texted Stephen Chung and asked him if he could provide an explanation for why we were not being credentialed to an event like this. Now, I will say that I just received a credential for an event tomorrow that is the president attending the National Archives with President Xi Jinping. Now, notably, that's not on White House grounds. I did receive a credential from the White House to be there tomorrow around 1130. But again, the big question here, Simone, is whether or not I WANT TO BE CREDITED TO BE CREDITED TO BE CREDITED TO MISS NOW OR CNN REPORTERS BECAUSE CNN ALSO ATTEMPTED TO GAIN ACCESS TO THIS GREEDING CEREMONY WITH THE CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING AND A CORRESPONDENT OF THEIRS AND A PRODUCER OF THEIRS WERE ALSO BARRED FROM BEING CREDENTIALED IN. THE BIG QUESTION IS, IS THIS GOING TO CONTINUE? ARE WE NOT GOING TO BE CREDENTIALED INTO THESE DAILY EVENTS, PRETTY TYPICAL ONES THAT WE ARE USUALLY ALLOWED INTO.
